Paperback
Large format, 8.5 × 11 — room to actually write. The organizer pages are bound right in.
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The Peace of Mind Series · Book One · 2026 Edition
If something happened to you tomorrow, would your family know where everything is?
Estate planning you can actually finish — in plain English.
2026 Edition. Revised every year, with the source for every figure printed in the book.
Get Your Affairs in Order
Most families don't lose the will. They lose the account numbers, the passwords, the name of the insurance company. Get Your Affairs in Order exists so that never happens to the people you love.
It is two books in one: a plain-English guide that finally explains estate planning without the legal jargon, and a complete fill-in organizer that puts every important detail of your life in one place. No law degree required. No scare tactics.
A look inside
Half a minute, and you'll know who this book is for
A short, quiet film about the gift of leaving your affairs in order. Press play for the film with sound.
Three ways to read it
The same book, in the form that fits your kitchen table
Hardcover
The same book at 8.25 × 11, in a hard case — for the shelf your family will one day go looking on.
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Reads on any device. The guide and the fifty-state appendix; the organizer pages are free to print from the companion page.
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Get an email when the numbers change
Estate limits, exemptions and state rules change every year. 2025 alone rewrote the small-estate limits in nine states. Join the free update list and you'll get one email a year with the new figures. Nothing else, ever.
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Everything your family needs
One book. One place.
In plain English
Fourteen short chapters, free of legal jargon.
All 50 states at a glance
Small-estate limits, witness requirements, handwritten wills, community property — for every state and the District of Columbia.
Your digital estate
Passwords, online accounts, photos, subscriptions — even your crypto.
You fill it in
In the print editions the organizer pages are bound right in: you pick up a pen, and everything your family needs ends up in one place.
“Get Your Affairs in Order is a unique combination of guidance, notes on organizing documentation, and preparation for the future. It is not a dry legal textbook and deals with death empathetically… Margaret K. Ellis has produced an outstanding work that is concise, clearly written, and full of practical advice, covering factors that you may never have considered. This valuable resource is highly recommended.”
Leonard Smuts for Readers’ Favorite, five stars
Inside the book
What you'll actually get done
- The One-Hour Quick Start — the five things your family would need tonight, finished this evening
- What a will actually controls, and the beneficiary forms that quietly override it
- Whether you need a trust (many people don't), and what each option really costs
- The four documents every adult needs in case of illness or incapacity
- Your digital estate: the free legacy tools from Apple, Google and Facebook that take fifteen minutes to set up
- Word-for-word scripts for the family conversation nobody wants to start
- Your state at a glance — the fifty-state appendix that generic guides skip
- The complete Organizer: large-format fill-in pages for accounts, documents, contacts, final wishes, and a letter to your family
Free, for everyone
The Companion Pack
Five printable PDFs: the Quick-Start Checklist, the fifty-state tables with the statute cited beside every figure, the organizer worksheets, the Yearly Estate Check-up, and fifteen free official resources your family may need one day.
No sign-up, no email address, no strings. You were promised that in the book, and there it is.
Open the Companion Pack →The series it belongs to
Four books—find the guide that fits
Three focused guides, plus one volume for wills, trusts and estate planning that combines Books One and Two. Find the book that fits your next step.
Read the film transcript & credits
Make things clearer for the people you love. Put your affairs in order. Understand living trusts. Make sense of Social Security & Medicare.
Three focused guides, in paperback, hardcover and Kindle. Find your guide. Three in one: wills, trusts and estate planning. Books One and Two, combined, plus extra resources, in paperback and hardcover. ellisfamilyguides.com.
Music: “Solo Acoustic #3” by Jason Shaw / Audionautix, licensed under CC BY 4.0. Edited and mixed for this film. Paper sound: xkeril, CC0. Illustrative scenes include AI-generated imagery.